Archery Southwest

Cant wait to do it again next year... it was a blast.

Jimbo, It was awesome hunting with you again out there. I learned a ton from you as always. You are an incredible hunter, guide, and know your coues deer better than anyone.

Way to go Jeremy, another one bites the dust... You are the Coues King.... Congrats again.

nice finds Gino... good luck with your elk hunt this year.

[ attachment=22163:Mullins_..._Tommy_2.jpg] 2009 AZ Bull Elk Hunt Our highly anticipated 2009 Elk hunt finally came after many months of waiting since the draw results. This year was more than just a hunt, we drew 5 tags in the same unit with family and friends and we were going to make it a hunt to remember for a lifetime. I was lucky enough to draw with a great friend, Matt Mullins, his father Jim Mullins Sr., his brother Tom Mullins, and Chrissy Wright who is on the Archery Southwest team (ASW). To top that off, we had Jim Mullins Jr. in camp who just came off the successful 2009 Auction tag with a “445 inch bull”, also a teammate on ASW, as well as ASW team members Manny Madrid and Damion Thomas. Finally, we had Lamannas Outdoors in the field capturing as much of the hunts as possible on film. This was truly set up to be a hunt to remember, and it was…. The scouting for this hunt started in the summer and sure paid off. The night before opening morning, we all had our game plan set and were pretty spread out to ensure we could capitalize on all of the big bulls we had been seeing. On day one, we set out to check out some areas, listen for some bugles, and see what we could find. After a few areas with no luck, Damion and I decided to head off to another section of the unit. We set up mid-day and I settled in for the afternoon wait. After about 3 hours, I saw some cows coming in, then a spike, and a few more cows. My heart started pumping, would I get to see one of the giants that afternoon… Then my bull came in running after the cows, head back, with a few short bugles. He was a clean 6X6 and looked extremely wide. I let him come in to get a good look and he looked extremely wide. I was looking for an unbroken, wide, 6X6 and I decided to get ready to shoot. I ranged him at 37 yards and I drew back my Hoyt Alphamax but while my heart was pounding I thought, “should I shoot on opening day?”, and I let down. After a few more minutes looking at this bull, I decided to shoot for sure and ranged him now at 48 yards. I drew back and the bull walked about 4 more yards and stopped to give me a slightly quartered shot, I put my Spot Hogg pin on him and let the arrow fly. I hear that unmistakable “Thwack” as an arrow hit the bull and watched this bull take off, jump over a log, crash down and skid into the dirt 30 feet. Then, as I am watching with amazement, the bull gets up and takes off again and I watch his direction until he is out of sight. At this point, I am so excited I can feel my heart beat in my toes, I just shot a Pope & Young bull with a bow and the wait to go find him was painful. After about an hour, I go to the site where I hit the bull and find the back half of my Axis Nano arrow and it was full of blood. I them started to follow the blood trail but decided to hold tight until Damion could come back and help. We tracked the bull for about 150 yards and started to loose light. I then started to realize how extremely tough these animals are and how far they can run even with a good hit. We lost good tracking light and we decided to come back in the morning since the night was going to be cold. I hardly slept that night and was ready to get after the tracking at daylight. This time, we had the whole team out looking. It was not long before Manny used his blood hound techniques to find a huge pile of blood. I started to get excited again to find my bull and walk up to him. Within the next 30 minutes of following each track and blood spot, we look under this cedar tree and see the rack glistening in the morning sun. I cannot express the feeling you get to walk up to such a magnificent animal with all of your friends there to see. It was awesome. We took in the moment, took our field photos, and the real work began to get this bull out of the woods and get the meat prepared. The rest of the crew took off to get back to their hunts. The next 5 days were full of incredible experiences and we ended up with 5 out of 5 great Pope & Young bulls. I cannot thank enough the Mullins’, Manny, and Damion for all of your help, your friendship, and am glad to be joining you guys in the field. This was a hunt to remember for a lifetime.

2010 Mexico Coues Whitetail Hunt After such an awesome 2009 with a successful Archery Bull Elk hunt, I was not sure how to top it in 2010. Well it started with the January Archery Deer hunts in AZ. I did not get my AZ buck in January, but I was lucky enough to stalk and shoot 2 nice bobcats with my bow. This year, I moved from the Hoyt Alphamax that allowed my successful Bull Elk harvest in 2009 to the new Hoyt Maxis 31. All I can say about the Hoyt Maxis is “Wow”. This is simply the best shooting bow I have ever shot, hands down. I have shot nearly every comparable bow out there to this new Hoyt and there really is no comparison. With that said, Jim Mullins Jr. was developing a few areas in Old Mexico for Pope & Young Coues and Mule deer hunts. Matt Mullins and I decided to go down and take a look at the new areas and see if we could get lucky in some foreign territory to us. We only had 3 days so it was going to be fun, and Jim had already been successful with some clients in the previous week where some GIANT Coues deer were taken with a rifle. Matt and I headed out and were not sure what to expect for an archery hunt as the terrain was extremely dense. On Friday morning, we head out to a new water hole that had not been visited before to see what tracks were on it and if it looked promising. As we walk up to the water hole, we see 2 bucks on the hillside coming into the tank. I quickly grab my bow, run to a position as fast as I can to get behind a small palo verde tree and I watch this buck come running to water. I watch him close but do not ever have a chance to draw back without him seeing me and he literally walks within 12 yards from me. He is a decent buck that would score 85 inches or so and had a nice wide frame with 4 points on each side. At 12 yards, he stops cold, could sense something was up, and trots off. At that point, I could not believe I just passed up a nice Coues buck with my bow, but I did. I walked back and I got the unanimous response, “do you know you just passed up a great Coues buck with a bow?” We all laughed and got after it again to find some more bucks. The rest of day one was not as eventful and we went back to the ranch house for some “real Mexican” food. That night we decided to get a blind on the water hole so it was set in for a morning hunt. We had the blind all brushed in and went back for a few hours of sleep. Matt and I decided to sit on the tank together so we could attempt a video of a possible opportunity. After about 3 hours, there was absolutely nothing coming in until… 2 wild horses decided to come in for a drink. Matt and I sat there and watched these 2 horses for 45 minutes and were pretty much sure our chances for anything to come in just evaporated. Finally, I got out of the blind and scared the horses off so we could try and salvage the rest of the morning. We laughed and started to talk through what else we could try in the next day and a half we had to hunt. In mid sentence, I causally glance over my left shoulder and see a big buck come walking in, immediately my heart is beating out of my chest and I let Matt know, “big buck, big buck.” I nock my Axis Nano arrow, and in the middle of my draw, another buck comes flying over a dirt burm not 10 feet from the side of our blind and stops the other buck in his tracks. As this more mature buck squares off at the other buck, all I saw was a really tall and wide rack on a HUGE bodied buck. With seconds to make a decision, I switched my sights to the new buck, found the bread basket, and let the arrow fly. Then the sounds we all love to hear, “Thwack”, a pass through, and a buck bounding up the burm and into the thick brush. Matt and I look at each other and then turn our eyes on the first buck who is still there and now coming into water since the other buck just took off. Without a second thought, Matt reaches for his bow and sees that it is under his pack, then he says, “give me your bow”, he nocks an arrow, waits for the buck to come into position, and lets it fly. The arrow hits its target perfectly and the buck trots off, but not far. The next few minutes Matt and I just sat there in absolute amazement. We just shot 2 Pope & Young Coues Whitetail bucks out of the same blind, on the same water hole, with the same bow in 22 seconds of total time. We just realized what we just experienced would probably never happen again and were in complete amazement and excited beyond belief. We could glass from the blind the blood trails and we knew we had to have 2 bucks down not too far away. We waited for about 2 hours and then began our tracking. We immediately find a huge pool of blood from my buck and start tracking the trail. After about 75 yards, the blood simply stops and we hear the buck get up and move out so we backed off to then go look for Matt’s buck. This track did not take long, and we found his buck piled up not 100 yards from the tank. With the day starting to get away from us, we called in some more caballeros to help us track my buck. Track by track we follow my buck 1/2 of a mile and loose light so we decided to head back to the ranch and start again the next day. After some incredible tracking and help from all of the team at the ranch, we finally find my buck, but the predators did too and had a feast on him. He ended up being about 500 yards from where we stopped tracking, but I was just elated to find the buck. This experience was yet another hunt Matt and I will never forget and cannot thank enough Jim Mullins and the ranchers who made this hunt possible. We now have some areas that we can make extremely good for a Pope & Young opportunity for both Coues and Mule deer and we will be seeing more of the ASW team with success later in 2010. Thanks again to Jim Mullins with Mullins Outfitters for all of your help.

Thanks Jimbo, I could not get Pop's pic that I had to load... It was an awesome hunt and look forward to getting drawn again someday if the good Lord is willing...

Tyler, Awesome story. Way to go big man. We are so happy for you. Look forward to taking you out on some more hunts in the future. wb

Jimbo, I could not have done it without you and the hard work you put into every one of your hunts. Thank you again, I am thrilled with a 100 inch 2 point and the experience we all had those few days hunting in Mexico. Can't wait for next year...

Zach, Sorry for the delay, been out hunting... Way to go on your first buck, but we knew you were going to drop one with the hard work you and your dad put in. It is always a pleasure hunting with you, we are going to have lots of fun for many years. You are growing up fast into a fine young man. Keep it up.